Enemies

The Greco-Persian Wars are a sequence of wars fought between the great empire of Persia and the coalition of Greek city-states. It lasted for about half a decade from 499 BC to 488 BC.The Ionian Revolt initiated the First Major Persian War. During 539 BC Cyrus The Great ruled Persia and most of West Asia. During his reign he first captured Lydia, which lay along the coast of Anatolia. The cities that were dependent of Lydia automatically became helpless and Cyrus next move was to capture those cities. The residents of these were then called Ionian's. Ionia is today based in Modern Turkey.

The Peloponnesian War ( 431 - 404 B.C.)

The War fought between the two leading city-states in ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta.

The Battle of Marathon

Athens was a famous city and the Persians wanted to attack Athens. So they took help of tyrant Hippias who originally a Greek, but was banished. He took support of King Darius of Persia. Filled with anger Hippias was waiting for such a chance. The battle started around 490 BC. Along with the army, they started moving towards Greece, looting and razing islands along their way. The army consisted of about 20,000 to 60,000 men.

Athens requested help from Sparta but was not entertained because the Spartans were not allowed to leave the city because of some religious reasons. So the only coalition was with the Plataeans, who had been an ally of Athens for a long time.

The Archidamian War

With the exception of Corinth, both Sparta and Athens were land-ruling powers. The war named after Sparta's king Archidamus II, started with Sparta accessing the regions surrounding Athens i.e. Attica. Athens mainly consisted of the peninsula of Attica and islands in the Aegean Sea. Athens had already removed their wealth from these islands and controlled them through navy.

Sparta thought that attacking the productive land of Attica, it would pressurize Athens to come forward to start the battle in a formal manner. Athens's army was definitely inferior to Sparta and allies. But this attack did not have much effect of Athens's because; their food supply mainly came from Egypt and Crimea.

The Spartans attack on Athens lasted just forty days in 430 BC, because the soldiers wanted to go back home during the harvest season.

Peace of Nicias:

The Peace of Nicias lasted for about six years. But small battles were fought around Peloponnese. When the Sparta avoided any interference in this matter a coalition of Argos, Mantinea and Elis. Argos revolted against Sparta. Spartan failed to break the coalition.

The Battle of Mantinea was the largest fought during the Peloponnesian War. It was the Lacedaemonians and the Tegeans against Argos, Athens, Mantinea, and Arcadia. Sparta won the battle, retained control over Peloponnese and reestablished their position.

Past enemies of Greece were Turkey, the Persians and the Spartans.